Giving a voice to prisoners: Michigan's Prison Creative Arts Project

The cover of the sixth annual Michigan Review of Prisoner Creative Writing.

PCAP
/ University of Michigan

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Just because you've been found guilty of a crime and sentenced to prison, doesn't mean you no longer have a voice, an opinion, something to say.

And that's why each year the Prison Creative Arts Project puts out the call to prisoners all around Michigan: Send us your poetry, your essays, your short stories.

PCAP goes through each submission and selects work to go into its annual Michigan Review of Prisoner Creative Writing. They're about to release their sixth volume. This one is called "The Sky Is On Fire, After All."

Philip Christman edits the Review, and he's an English Department instructor at the University of Michigan. He joined us today.

LANSING, Mich. (AP) - New legislation in Lansing is designed to help inmates find a job when they leave prison.

The bills would let Michigan certify felons' skills and character to help them during the job application process. The "certificate of employability" could go to parolees based on their criminal history, institutional behavioral record, and vocational and educational training.

When the public hears that a prisoner has been sentenced to serve time in jail, most of us allow ourselves to think that the guilty party will do the time.

But what happens when the number of prisoners who are sentenced outstrips the capacity of that jail? Do you cram in more and more inmates? Relieve overcrowding through early release? Reduce bonds? And what are the repercussions of each of those approaches?

Daniel Manville is an Associate Clinical Professor of Law and the Director of the Civil Rights Clinic at Michigan State University. He joined us today to discuss the issue.